Propel

Making applying for food stamps a snap.

What is Easy Food Stamps by Propel?

Easy Food Stamps by Propel is a user-friendly interface that guides applicants through the SNAP questionnaire, which previously had to be completed on paper or on a desktop computer. The website cuts the average application time by 3 hours, making enrollment a whole lot easier.

Why it matters:

Nobody likes waiting in line at the DMV or filing their tax return, but government bureaucracy is more than just an annoyance to people who need lifesaving public services. A correctly completed SNAP application can mean the difference between eating and going hungry, yet is shockingly difficult to do.

Who it helps:

The day laborer who can’t enroll online because the site doesn’t work on his phone.

The single working mother who doesn’t have time to waste on a confusing application.

The disabled person for whom leaving the home to get assistance takes a serious toll.

The potential impact:

1.76 million New Yorkers receive food stamps, and another 500,000 are eligible. Propel plans to scale the product to reach additional cities, states and programs, potentially benefiting 47 million disadvantaged Americans nationwide.

The team behind Propel

Jimmy Chen

Product

Jimmy's talent for connecting people through technology drove his success in managing product at LinkedIn and Facebook. At Facebook, he led product for Facebook Groups, a communication tool used by 7% of the global population each month.

Jimmy Chen

Product

Shelly Ni

Design

Shelly is a graduate of Stanford's Product Design program and the School of Visual Arts' MFA Interaction Design program. She has led UX design and conducted user research for teams large and small, including the NYC MTA, Clever Sense, Aetna, and The Feast social innovation conference.

Shelly Ni

Design

Kevin Miller

Engineering

Kevin loves utilizing the power of technology to solve problems. He teaches a class at General Assembly, and teaches Computer Science through Microsoft TEALS. He previously co-founded several New York-based startups, including a group video platform called Wisdomly and an apartment broker tool called Rentista.

Kevin Miller

Engineering

Wenting Zhang

Design/Engineering

Wenting worked in UX design and front-end development for The Huffington Post Labs, and has a Masters degree from Parsons The New School for Design. She previously co-founded a start-up called cmere, an event finder and share tool, and is working on an ongoing project called "free stuff fairy" that targets New York City's waste problem.